Gavin Baker

Samasource might be my favorite new non-profit.  Why?  Because they bring together the scrapiness of a startup with the social effects of a non-profit.  Like charity:water they operate under the model that their “return” is about bringing an American commodity to the global poor.  So what is Samasource?  It’s pure and (not) so simple social entrepreneurship, using technology for social good with the powerful tagline of “Give Work.”

It was founded by Leila Chirayath Janah who is currently the CEO (and about my age) and she shares her vision in the video below at TEDxSV.  There is also a great write up here if you’d prefer to read than watch.

Leila Chirayath Janah: Ending Poverty in the Digital Age from TEDx Silicon Valley on Vimeo.

You can use them for the tasks below:

• Basic data services – business listings verification, data scraping, image and text tagging, content moderation, and data entry
• Advanced data services – subjective tasks including image- and text-based judgments
• Language services – audio and video transcription, video captioning, and translation
• Call center services – outbound services

So Give Work if you can.  I know I will.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Leila Chirayath Janah: The Virtual Assembly Line (huffingtonpost.com)
• Expedia launches new charity program (bizjournals.com)
• How Samasource Helps The World, And A Secret Tattoo Unveiled (Video) (techcrunch.com)

Anyone out there brand movements for a living?

I’ve had the thought to do this post for a while, but Olivier over at the brand builder blog (one of my favorite blogs) shared this post on terrorist branding which jogged my memory.

As I was driving down the highway a few months ago I was passed by a  white tahoe that had a magnet on the side of it that said

“Save the ta-ta’s”

and as it passed me, its license plate read

“PNKRBN”

Now, with these two clues I was left to guess what the driver of this vehicle supporting.  My guess is Breast awareness.

Pink ribbons have become synonymous with breast cancer support in the last few years and have probably achieved a higher recognition rate then many of the other support movements or even companies founded in that time frame.

The question that echoes for me is how? Did they achieve such reach? How did they get such staying power?
Is it the simplicity of the message? Is it the global need? Is it the emotional tie?

Either way, well done to those that contributed to the idea of the campaign, and the movement. Much good has come from the pink ribbon and I applaud those who support such worthy causes. (Don’t forget next month is breast cancer awareness month)